Reusable Cloths vs. Papertowels?
Washable Cloths vs. Papertowel
Environmental Impact
What to consider when determining whether it is more enviro-friendly to use cloth towels or paper towels:
Which one takes more energy/waste to create?
How long can each one be used before discarding?
How much energy/water/waste does it use to keep cloths clean?
Creating Cloth Towels vs. Paper Towels
Whenever you buy something new, like a package of cloth towels or a package of paper towels there are environmental impacts. You must consider that material had to be sourced, it was manufactured in a factory, and transported to the store.
Cloth towels may be bought second hand or repurposed from other material around the house. At our house the cloth towels are repurposed baby cloths that we received as gifts.
The best option here is to use repurposed cloth from around the house or purchasing towels second hand for this purpose.
How Long Does It Last?
Cloth Towels can last several years, while paper towels are typically used once, or perhaps a couple of times before they must be discarded.
The best option here to reduce waste and save trees is to use cloth towels.
Costs of Laundry
A final consideration is the environmental impact of doing laundry to clean cloth towels. In order to keep cloth towels clean and sanitary they must be washed regularly. If I’ve used a cloth for something with particularly high levels of bacteria like wiping up meat or children’s body fluids then I rinse out the cloth with dish soap, hang it to dry on the dirty towel basket, and wash with the rest of the kitchen towels.
A load of laundry uses energy and water, and therefore has an environmental impact. Here is an interesting article that compares water used in cleaning rags versus creating paper towels.
While there are many considerations, in this area paper towels don’t require further water input for washing and cleaning compared to cloth towels. Therefore, cloth towels have more environmental impact in regards to keeping them clean.
If you’re able to do loads that are big enough to meet your washing machine’s capacity, then you are optimizing the energy/water used.
So Which Is Better?
Based on the categories considered in this review, cloth towels are the better option compared to paper towels. This does require that you source your cloth towels from rags around the house or second hand and that you are mindful of laundry loads.
Full disclosure, we use both cloth towels and paper towels at our house. I am glad to have both options available right now. There are certain messes, that involve more bacteria, for which I prefer paper towel. This set up has helped me transition to using cloth towels for more things. Eventually I hope to use only cloth towels.
What about you? Let me know what you think about cloth towels versus paper towels via contact page.
